


Lessons

by koalathebear



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon, Speculative
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-29
Updated: 2015-12-29
Packaged: 2018-05-10 05:08:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5572181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koalathebear/pseuds/koalathebear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While waiting for Finn to wake up from his coma, Rey has lessons in a variety of things.</p><p>I'm not even sure what this is.  It started out as a scribble in response to my request for fic prompts over at this <a href="http://koalathebear.tumblr.com/post/135877026941/star-wars-the-force-awakens-fic-prompts">post</a> but kind of grew.</p><p>The prompt was: "Love your fics! I'd love some Rey/Poe flying lessons. Thanks :)"  Unbeta'd as usual so I'll fix mistakes as I find them ...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lessons

Buried deep in the native vegetation of D'Qar, the Resistance base was staffed by guards at multiple levels. There was constant activity at the base. People seemed to be everywhere. Located in the Ileenium system in the Outer Rim Territories, the lush green planet with its thick forest canopy was about as stark a contrast to Rey's home planet of Jakku as one could possibly find.

"He's teaching me how to use the Force… probably because General Organa is forcing him to do it – in fact, I'm pretty sure he still doesn't really want to do it …" Rey confided as she sat in the medical centre beside Finn who still lay in a medically-induced coma, his chest rising and falling, his breathing steady but his eyes closed.

"Shouldn't we be waking him up by now?" Rey asked Dr Kalonia, her heart in her eyes.

Dark of hair and eyes with a kindly demeanour, the physician's eyes voice was patient and gentle. "His injuries were very serious … we are not as familiar with treating light sabre injuries as we once were … we need to be sure that his spine is fully healed before we wake him, otherwise there is a risk of permanent paralysis."

Rey stared at Finn's face and sighed. "I need to go to training now but I'll be back later," she promised him. 

Poe Dameron entering the room through a different door saw Rey leaving with a troubled frown on his face. It had been like that for the past few weeks since her return to the Resistance base with Luke Skywalker. Rey had been much like a shadow, keeping vigil by Finn's bedside, obediently attending her lessons with Luke Skywalker but otherwise keeping to herself.

"She's a strange little thing," Poe had remarked to General Organa who had smiled.

"She's not a little thing at all – she's a young woman, desperately lonely and frightened but not wanting to show it. She's in a strange place and her only friend is in a coma."

"I'm not sure she wants any friends ..." Poe had remarked to the General. 

He drew up a seat beside Finn's bed and exhaled slowly. "Your friend is as skittish as a borrat," Poe commented, his dark eyes serious. "You need to wake up buddy – she needs you."

He stayed a while with Finn, giving him a briefing on his latest mission and what had happened since his last visit. Then he rose to his feet and put his hand on the former stormtrooper's shoulder.

"See you soon," he told him gravely before leaving.

*

Grassy mounds camouflaged the hangars and other base structures. Resistance techs were busy repairing damaged craft, running cables, cleaning and refurbishing. The constant activity was for the large part hidden from view – which was one of the reasons the planet had been selected as a base of operations for the Resistance. Unfortunately it was no longer safe and preparations were already underway for the Resistance to leave the planet before the First Order was able to regroup after the attack on the Starkiller Base.

Rey ran her fingertips over the body of Black One, the T-70 X-wing starfighter used by Poe Dameron. It was a thing of beauty and Rey almost purred with pleasure as she studied the ship.

She had seen the wreckage of a T-65B X-wing starfighter buried in the sands of Jukku but that had resembled the tired skeletal remains of an old sea monster. It was another thing entirely to see a fully functioning X-wing in person.

"Didn't realise I'd find you here," a familiar voice commented and Rey turned around and saw Poe Dameron standing a short distance from her with a smile on his face. She'd initially known him only as Finn's friend, the man who had helped Finn escape from the First Order. It was only later that she had discovered that he was the commanding officer of the Red and Blue Squadrons. His call sign Black Leader had been derived from the X-wing in front of her. 

"I've not seen her up close before," Rey remarked, honest admiration in her voice. She smiled as BB-8 rolled up alongside and chirruped a cheerful greeting at her. At present, she numbered her friends at the base at all of two - Finn and BB-8 the chatty astromech droid. She ignored the fact that one was unconscious and the other was entirely artificial and a composite of a selenium drive, a thermal hyperscan vindicator and a internal self-correcting gyroscopic propulsion system … It was still two more than she'd ever had on Jakku - Devi and Strunk didn't count. 

"She's a beauty, that's for sure … " Poe agreed, genuine affection in his voice. "Want the tour?" he asked her and grinned when he saw her eyes light up.

Goss Toowers who had been watching from the shadows, hurried forward to supervise when the two pilots scrambled up and on the X-wing rights. He had just performed repairs on Poe's starship and was anxious to ensure that they didn't undo any of his hard work.

"She's a cruciform starfighter - armed with four wing-mounted laser cannons, mag-pulse launchers, projectile launcher …" he pointed out each feature.

"And an underslung blaster cannon," Rey observed, peering beneath the X-wing.

"Also equipped with a hyperdrive and a spotlight on the ventral surface below the cockpit," he told her, nodding when she glanced up at him for permission to look inside the cockpit. He nodded and lifted the canopy for her. Rey scanned the display with sharp interest. The pilot had access to ejection systems in the form of a Guidenhauser Ejector seat.

"Where does the Resistance get them from?" she asked curiously. It wasn't as though the Resistance could simply go and buy the ships from the Incom Corporation who manufactured them.

"These were donated by members of the Republic sympathetic to the Resistance," he told her. It was the first time he'd seen her air of distance and formality fall away from her. Her dark eyes were alive with interest and warmth and the wariness was momentarily banished. The young woman still wore variants of her desert clothing, eschewing the uniform of the Resistance, perhaps in a bid to retain her individuality. In a nod to safety considerations, she no longer wore loose clothing and her trousers and blouse were tightly wrapped to her slender body. Nonetheless, she looked like an exotic and almost wild creature, standing in the X-wing hangar with her hair pulled into her usual three knots. 

"She must be amazing to fly," Rey marvelled, wistfulness threading through her voice as she studied the X-wing.

"Do you think you could fly one?" he asked her with a smile in his eyes.

"I can fly anything," Rey replied matter-of-factly, no boastfulness in her voice. 

Poe smiled. "I know that feeling. I started learning to fly when I was six, using my mother's RZ-1 A-wing interceptor … haven't looked back since." His dark eyes clouded over slightly as his words clearly called to mind sad memories. "You?" he asked her.

Rey looked startled that he was interested in her past. Jakku was an unforgiving planet and those who did not adapt, died quickly. She had learned to survive by scavenging and her skills had earned her the respect of many junk traders but respect was not friendship and she had very much grown up alone, learning self-defence as a matter of necessity. 

"I’ve been flying every kind of junk you can imagine almost since I could walk … " exaggerating a little without meaning to. She self-corrected immediately. "But self-taught … I once found an old flight simulator in the Graveyard of Giants … fixed it up and taught myself how to pilot."

Poe looked impressed and she found herself telling him more despite herself. She had rigged a computer together using pieces scavenged from several crashed fighters over the years, including a cracked but still-usable display from an old BTL-A4 Y-wing. On the wreckage of a Zephra-series hauler, though, she’d once found a stash of data chips, and after painstakingly going through each and every one of them, she’d discovered three with their programs intact; one of them, to her delight, had been a flight simulator. 

"When I wasn't sleeping or just sitting and listening to the storm or working at my workbench – I'd fly … I could select all sorts of ships to fly … small repulsor-driven atmospheric crafts to different fighters – even freighters."

She didn’t tell him that the programme had allowed her to set destinations - worlds she’d never visited and never imagined she would, and scenarios, from speed runs to obstacle courses to system failures. 

"I'm impressed – I've seen you fly," he told her, frank admiration in his dark eyes and a smile of approval on his face. "You're a good pilot."

"In the beginning, I was completely rubbish … I crashed a few seconds after takeoff every time."

"And now?" 

"Now, I can do a full-throttle atmospheric reentry with repulsor-engine failure .. I can deal with a multiple hull breach deep-space engine flameout …" She flushed when she realised how odd she sounded. "There's not a lot to do to keep yourself entertained on Jakku," she said with a wry smile. "There's a reason they called it the Junk Planet …"

"But it was your home," he said gently, pleased that she was opening up to him a little. She looked past him and he could see the memories stir something in her mind. "I learned stuff by exploring wrecks and pulling systems apart and putting them back together again ... I studied schematics and maintenance data tapes and astromech memory cores."

"Do you want to see how you go flying an X-wing one of these days – we could quickly test you in a sim first." he asked her and her eyes widened in shock.

"Really? You'd trust me with your beloved starship?"

"That and more," he said with a smile and meant it.

*

"You seriously don't want this anymore?" Rey asked as she held up the remnants of a gyro-stabilizer and an actuator for an acceleration compensator.” Goss Toowers shook his head silently and Rey tucked it into the pack that she had slung over one slender shoulder. "I can't believe that people just throw this stuff out," she mumbled.

Goss Towers looked amused, his reptilian face unexpressive to some but Rey was learning how to detect emotion in the Shozer's dark eyes, his gestures and the sound of his voice. She particularly liked watching his spirited exchanges with Poe as they discussed – or debated – various repairs or modifications that were going to be made to the Black Leader's beloved starship. 

There was a lot theatrical posturing that took place when the two were debating what would and would not be done to Black One. Not only did Dameron understand Shozer (although he did not appear to speak it), like Rey he was also able to understand Binary and she found the spirited exchanges between BB-8 and his master to be very entertaining. 

"She's as much Goss' baby as she is mine," Poe had told her, gesturing towards Black One. "Every modification or improvement is hotly debated and discussed."

Goss Toowers was one of the technical crew providing mechanical support to the Resistance's fleet of starfighters. He was a meticulous worker and incredibly diligent – but also friendly and very kind. When the young scavenger from Jakku had started shadowing him as he went about his many duties, he was completely unperturbed. Sometimes Rey would accompany him as he monitored the ships that arrived and departed from the base and assisted him when he would let her. 

She found it more than a little thrilling to see the X-wing squadrons approaching from the horizon, to see the way they would coast along the tarmac and come to a halt with such precision. In particular, there was something very inspirational and exciting about seeing the way Poe Dameron would spring down lightly from his cockpit, his thick dark hair tousled from being stuffed under his helmet.

He would look for her and incline his head in silent greeting as he oversaw the work on his X-wing. 

_Welcome back, sir_ , Goss Toowers would tell him gravely no matter how many times Poe would correct him and tell the Shozer to call him by his given name.

With Finn still unconscious, she divided her time between the medical clinic, lessons with Luke Skywalker and the hangar that housed the X-wings. At first, she suspected that Poe and Goss only suffered her presence out of politeness but when they saw how mechanically-minded she was and how much she loved the starships, they allowed her to assist more and more.

"She seems to be coming out of her shell," General Organa remarked one day as she observed Rey tagging along behind Goss Toowers, peering over an armful of spare parts.

"Still keeps to herself to herself … but she's getting there," Poe agreed.

"And Luke says she's doing well in training… although …" Leia sighed. These days she worried more about Luke than she did about Rey.

"Ma'am?" Poe asked her.

"It's nothing," she murmured, aware that the young Resistance pilot was not convinced.

*

"What's up?" Poe asked as he leaped down from Black One after a late night mission. BB-8 chirruped to remind Goss that he wanted to be lowered to the ground. When it became apparent that Goss was too busy speaking with Poe, BB-8 made a low sound of disapproval and made his own arrangements with Black One's computer to be lowered to the tarmac.

 _Come with me …_ , Goss told Poe gravely and Poe frowned and followed behind the male Shozer into the hangar and into one of the back storage rooms.

Goss held a finger to his lips to shush him before opening a door to a small storage room. Inside, curled up on the floor on a mat with a light blanket pulled over herself was Rey. Poe stared down at her incredulously, his eyes going to her sleeping face and the knapsack placed on the ground beside her.

"This is where she sleeps?" he demanded.

_Every night…_

Rey had comfortable living quarters at the base. She certainly didn't need to sleep on the hard floor of a store room in the X-wing hangar … Poe's gaze then moved a few feet away from where Rey was sleeping. There was a pile of what could only be described as junk. Pumps, filters, impellers, valves, pistons, fuel injectors, inverters, capacitors, bearings and other component parts discarded from the X-wings post-maintenance.

He glanced over at the Shozer and Goss shrugged. _Everything is too precious to throw away. She's horrified at the 'waste'._

Poe felt pity rising up inside of him but he pushed it down determinedly. He knew that Rey would be mortified at the thought that someone felt pity for her. He slung Rey's knapsack over his shoulder and crouched down to lift her up into his arms.

Goss opened the door of the store room for him so that he could step through with the light burden in his arms. Despite being quite tall, she was still very slender and she seemed to weigh very little as he stood and stared down at her sleeping face. "I'll take her back to her quarters," he whispered and Goss walked ahead of him in silence.

At the door to Rey's quarters, Goss Toowers overrode the passcode to her quarters so that Poe could go inside. "Thanks for letting me know, buddy," he told the mechanic who nodded and disappeared into the shadows. Poe set Rey down gently on her bed and drew the covers up around her chin. She stirred slightly in her sleep, whimpering in her dreams and then suddenly her eyes flew open and she stared up at him in shock.

"Where am I?" she demanded, sitting up in the bed and looking around the room a little wildly.

"Easy … easy …" he told her in a soothing voice. "Goss showed me where you've been sleeping …"

She looked at him defensively. "Am I in trouble?"

"Of course not," he told her reassuringly and sat on the edge of her bed. "I get it … this room probably feels strange to you … it will take time for you to get used to being surrounded by people."

She nodded and pulled a face. "As long as I can remember, I've been living on my own in the desert … Would you believe I lived in the middle of a broken down Imperial AT-AT …"

"You could sleep in Black One if you'd feel more comfortable there," Poe joked with a smile.

Rey shook her head. "Sometimes there are just so many voices here … I feel …"

"Smothered?" he asked her and she nodded.

"How did you know?"

He shrugged. "I'm a starfighter pilot … when I'm out in space… I'm all alone with no one around me … I know what solitude's like …I know how hard it can be to think when you're surrounded by chatter …"

"But I've seen you, you're always surrounded by people… talking to them, joking and laughing … I couldn't ever be like that," she confided.

"You'd be surprised – but in any case, you don't have to be anything or anyone you don't want to be," he reassured her. "If you really want to keep sleeping in the hangar, you can keep doing that … but I think you'll find that it's a lot more comfortable in here." He gave her a crooked smile that made his dark eyes crinkle at the corners.

Rey glanced at her knapsack that was still on his shoulders. He lifted it off and placed it on the bed. "Once a scavenger, always a scavenger," she tried to joke. "I didn't steal those parts," she told him. "Goss told me that they were junk – that no one wanted them …"

"You don't have to explain yourself to me. You can take all the scrap parts you want … although you don't have to scavenge anymore," he told her.

"Do you know how many portions something like this is worth?" she demanded, gesturing at the parts in the bag. "I've got a communications antenna, repulsorlifts, power couplings and power converters … I could eat for more than a week!"

"You can have as much food as you want now, Rey … but if it makes you feel better … go ahead and do it," he told her. "Besides, based on what Goss is telling me, you've got the skills to build your own ship."

Rey flushed. "He's exaggerating."

"He's a Shozer, they're really not prone to exaggeration – think droid rationality but in reptile form… " he pointed out with a smile.

Rey yawned, covering her mouth and looking apologetic.

"You should get some sleep."

"And you – didn't you just get back from a mission?"

"Close your eyes," he urged her. "Try to get some sleep … you'll find the bed is a lot more comfortable than the hangar floor …"

"Will you stay?" she asked and his eyes widened.

"Sure. Do you want a bedtime story?" he joked.

That made her laugh. "Tell me about the A-wing …"

He gave a laugh. "Not much of a bedtime story, but sure." He paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts. "My first ship was my mother's RZ-1 A-wing. It had been repaired a bunch of times … it was pretty beat up … but she was a good, tight little fighter …" he mused reminiscently. "When my mother left the Rebellion after the Battle of Endor, the A-wing was part of her package. Sometimes, she'd take me up in it …" he gave a brief smile. "I'd sit on her lap squashed up inside the cockpit … she'd let me put my hands on the stick – although her hands were on top of mine …"

"I envy you," Rey whispered wistfully. "I don't remember anything about my mother … either of my parents…"

Poe smoothed the hair from her face and whispered,"I remember breaking through the thin skin that protected the moon that was our home … the push and pull of atmosphere and gravity would vanish and it felt … perfect … "

He looked down at Rey's face. She was fast asleep, breathing calm and regular. Poe smiled to himself in memory of his flights as a child, staring up through the canopy and losing track of the stars. He remembered feeling the freedom and the potential – the belief that he could go anywhere and do anything.

He rose to his feet, tucked the blankets around Rey's chin again and pressed the panel to open the door. BB-8 waited on the other side, blinking and beeping at him in a subdued manner. "Stay with her, will you?" he asked his droid and BB-8 acknowledged his request and rolled into Rey's room to find a comfortable corner in which to power down. Poe smiled and left his droid to watch over the young pilot's sleep.

*

Poe stood studying the Corellian YT-1300 light freighter known as the _Millennium Falcon_ with great interest. The ship looked like an ugly duckling among the sleeker X-wings and support craft that were on the tarmac.

Despite its decrepit and almost ancient appearance, Poe was fascinated by it. He had grown up with stories of its feats. All Resistance pilots knew that the ship had been used as during the Galactic Civil War by Han Solo and Chewbacca and that it had been previously owned by Lando Calrissian, who had lost it to Solo in a game of sabacc. The _Falcon_ was the stuff of myth and folklore.

Although he didn't turn around, he sensed the arrival of Luke Skywalker before he spoke. "She doesn't look like much but she's saved my life on more than occasion," Skywalker remarked.

"At the Battle of Yavin?"

"Then and many other times," Luke replied with a calm smile, drawing back the heavy hood of his cloak and Poe stared at him closely, trying to discern the hero of the Rebellion in the older man's heavy, bearded features. 

"My sister tells me that you're a gifted pilot – the best in the Resistance."

Poe debated whether or not to demur … but the faint smile in the older man's eyes told him that there was no point in feigning false modesty.

"I was born to fly," he replied simply.

"The Force is a powerful ally."

That observation made Poe smile crookedly. "I'm no Jedi. It's down to training and flying ability – nothing to do with the Force," Poe pointed out, trying his best not to offend Skywalker.

Luke was still smiling. "You don't have to be a Jedi … the Force is an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together."

"Yeah and I'm the one flying my ship, not the Force, sir," Poe replied as politely as possible. Luke Skywalker's knowing smile bordered on smug and Poe felt a flicker of irritation. He started wondering if Skywalker really was a great warrior or if he was just a religious zealot, clinging to the remnants of an almost extinct religion.

"For some pilots perhaps, but not you, Poe Dameron," Luke remarked.

"You think I wouldn't know if was a damned Jedi?" Poe demanded, feeling more than a little incensed at the implication his flying ability could be attributed to some mystical, invisible force instead of natural ability and years and years of hard work.

"I never said you were a Jedi," Luke pointed out. "Being Force sensitive hardly makes you a Jedi."

"Force sensitive?" 

"Yes – not the strongest, but there's definitely something there," Luke told him enigmatically before walking away from the gobsmacked pilot to walk to some hill somewhere to meditate. When he wasn't instructing Rey or arguing with General Organa, the Jedi master seemed to spend an awful lot of time meditating.

"No offence, ma'am – but your brother is a very annoying man," Poe muttered to Leia later when he was making his way to the mess hall.

Leia laughed. It was a rusty sound. "No offence taken Poe – I've often thought the same thing myself. But he's right you know. I've often suspected the same thing about your flying abilities."

"Why didn't you ever say anything?" he demanded.

"I wasn't sure. It was just a feeling … I couldn't be certain. In any case … it didn't really matter. You're a hell of a pilot, that's good enough for me." 

He watched as the General walked away. The mess hall at the base was a large hall with tables set in neat rows. Poe scanned the room until his eyes fell on Rey, sitting on her own in the corner, narrow shoulders hunched forward with her tray of food in front of her. 

He walked towards her table, his loose-limbed stride that bordered on a swagger drawing admiring glances from many of the females and some of the males in the room.

"If you don't want that, I'll eat it," he remarked, reaching out and picking a piece of fruit from her tray and popping it into his mouth.

"Commander Dameron," she greeted him with a wide smile. 

He rolled his eyes. "You've been hanging around Goss too much. My name is Poe," he corrected her, dropping into the seat opposite her. His legs were long and the table was narrow so her legs and feet ended up resting inside of his. It felt strangely intimate … but oddly right. She made no effort to move away from him although she was extremely conscious of his leg pressed against hers.

"The doctor says they're going to wake up Finn next week – there will be some extensive hydrotherapy but she's pretty sure he'll be fine."

"She told me, too – great news!" Poe replied, looking as happy as Rey.

"He likes you a lot – thinks you're a hero."

Poe looked mildly embarrassed. "Feeling's mutual – he saved my life as I'm sure you know."

"He says you saved his, too." Poe grinned and stole another piece of fruit, looking a little mischievous as he chewed.

"So Goss tells me that you haven't been sleeping in the hangar anymore. Does that mean you're getting used to comfortable living after all?" he asked her.

Rey nodded. "Yes … and thank you for leaving BB-8 with me … " the little droid was her sentinel every night, chirruping and keeping her company before she fell asleep. She found its presence incredibly comforting. "You know – he says you're not his master but his friend."

Poe laughed. "That's right. That little droid has saved my butt on more than a few occasions."

"He absolutely adores you."

"He's a pretty big fan of yours, too. Told me all about you saving him from a Teedo … and how you didn't sell him even though you could have got one hundred portions for him."

Rey's dark eyes widened. "I guess he tells you everything."

"He's chatty, I'm chatty …" Poe said with a shrug. "Anyway, I'm going on a scouting mission this afternoon if you want come along."

"Of course!" Rey exclaimed.

"If it's quiet, you can even fly for a bit."

"What sort of scouting mission?"

"After we destroyed the Starkiller Base, the First Order are spying on us so we're spying on them spying on us …"

"Oh, I see …" Rey nodded.

"After you finish your lunch – go and see Jessika about getting suited up and I'll meet you by one of the shuttles."

*

Under Poe's watchful eye, Rey ran through a standard pre-lift sequence, activated the relevant instrumentation calmly and competently. The shuttle thrummed and they could feel it lifting from the ground and soaring away from the surface of the planet.

"Nice take off," Poe complimented her.

The shuttle was responsive to her every command and she maintained control with ease. Poe watched as Rey sent the ship accelerating into the clouds until the sky gave way to the cold yet comforting blackness of space.

"Making the jump into hyperspace," Rey reported aloud as Poe, in his self-appointed role as co-pilot ran through his tasks with calm ease.

"I always find travelling in hyperspace pretty relaxing … gives you time to check out and prepare your equipment, make repairs … make casual conversation …" His gaze rested warmly on Rey's face.

Rey's eyes were bright with excitement and exhilaration.

"Having fun?" he asked her and her brilliant smile was all the answer he needed.

*

"How was it?" the young woman with dark hair asked as Rey disembarked from the shuttle after the brief scouting mission. It had been a short and low-risk mission with little chance of engagement with the First Order.

"It was great," Rey replied enthusiastically and Jessika Pava smiled. Goss Toowers and his team moved forward to inspect the shuttle with care to ensure that there had been no damage.

"You'll be flying on your own in no time," Jessika remarked. 

A huge admirer of Luke Skywalker, the young Resistance fighter in Poe's Blue Squadron was frequently tongue-tied in the presence of Skywalker, something that caused great amusement in Poe.

"If you're nice, maybe Rey will introduce you properly to Luke Skywalker, Blue Three."

"She tried … it didn't go well, commander," Jessika said ruefully. She remained back at the hangar with Goss while Rey and Poe made their way to the medical centre to sit beside Finn.

Poe listened with a grin on his face as Rey recounted the brief scouting mission to Finn's unconscious figure. He chimed in now and then as needed but for the most part just let her prattle on.

"And this evening, Master Luke's going to teach me about Force persuasion," Rey told her friend. "I told him what happened at Starkiller Base and he's going to help me try to resist …"

The smile vanished from Poe's face and his skin turned ashen.

"Are you all right?" Rey asked him in concern.

"Do you think that I could be taught how to resist the mind probe?" Poe asked her abruptly.

Rey shuddered. She remembered it all too well. The pain. Her efforts to shut Kylo Ren out of her mind and the contemptuous ease with which her mental defences had been brushed aside. Even remembering it now caused a lingering ache at the back of her eyes.

Staring at Poe's face, she could see the residual horror in his eyes at the memory.

"I know what it was like …" Rey said slowly. "We can ask Master Luke," she suggested.

*

The pressure he applied was not physical. Refusing to meet his gaze, Poe looked away, straining with the agony of resistance, hardly daring to breathe. Luke released his grip for a moment and relieved of the mental intrusion into his mind, Poe sucked in deep breaths of air. 

"It wasn't your fault … Ben has great power." There was a sadness to Luke's voice. For an ordinary person, no matter how strong they thought themselves, resisting the probing of a creature like Kylo Ren was simply not possible. Poe had tried. There was no shame in the failure… except that he still felt shame and Luke had seen that when he had looked within Poe's mind.

"Don't do a direct block," he suggested to both Poe and Rey. "Think of other things … focus on something else, something innocuous. Rey – try to read Poe's mind," he suggested, thinking that it would be far less intrusive for the Resistance pilot to have Rey poking around in his mind than Luke Skywalker.

Poe closed his eyes, trying to keep his mind blank, his memories locked. He winced as he felt Rey bumping against him … probing and searching … breaking through his defences. He swore beneath his breath as the pain of trying to stave off the intrusion made him wince.

"Don't fight it so hard," Luke told him. "Let her see what you want her to see …" His dark eyes opened momentarily and he stared into Rey's face. Her eyes were wide and staring at him in shock as he strained to resist the probe.

To his shock, he found himself pushing into her, brushing aside her scrambled attempts to keep him out. Emotion crossed his face as he felt the intense loneliness of an abandoned child … her fear and sorrow … fragmented images of an island in the middle of nowhere. Rey looked startled but as the two of them fell back gasping from their efforts, Luke Skywalker looked bemused rather than surprised.

"Are you going to continue to deny that you're Force sensitive, Commander Dameron?" Luke asked him quietly.

"Is that why he can see inside my head?" Rey demanded in shock.

"Yes … " Luke looked intrigued. "Shara and Kes did not have any traces of Force sensitivity … but you …" when he saw the flicker of resentment on Poe's face, Luke smiled. "Aren't you happy about what this means? I can teach you to resist a mind probe … "

Poe exhaled. "Well there's that," he conceded.

After their training session with Skywalker, they were both exhausted, drenched in perspiration and with thunderous headaches. "That's enough for tonight," Luke announced with a rather serene and knowing smile. He was polite and had tried not to pry but there were some things that young people simply could not hide and to be honest, he didn't need the Force to know what how Poe Dameron and Rey felt about one another.

"I'll walk you back to your quarters," Poe offered, offering a limp Rey his arm which she accepted gratefully. BB-8 trailed along after them at a respectful distance, keeping its beeps low and subdued.

"That nightmare …" he started to say, referring to the many images he had seen flying around in her mind.

Rey flinched. She hadn't discussed the vision and her subsequent nightmares with anyone – not even Master Luke.

"It started after Takodana … when I first came near the lightsabre …" She shivered slightly and Poe glanced at her in concern. The door of Rey's quarters slid open and they stepped in and sat side by side on the floor of all places, leaning against the wall.

"Tell me about it," he urged her gently, leaning in to her. Rey leaned sideways so that they were shoulder to shoulder, legs stretched out in front of them.

"You saw … you felt … "

"Sometimes talking about things helps anyway," he told her and so she did. She told him about the dreams of loneliness she'd had as a child, of the nightmares that had materialised after her counter with the lightsabre … after the Force had called to her.

"Your mother was beautiful," she remarked gently and he closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall.

"I'm surprised you could see her … there are some days I can barely remember her face … it was so long ago …"

Rey closed her eyes. "May I?" she asked him and he nodded, his eyes still closed. It was a lot easier to see inside someone else's head when they weren't fighting you, when they weren't blocking or resisting …

"Thank you," he whispered hoarsely and Rey smiled.

"I wish I could return the favour …" he told her. There was an emptiness in her memories where her family used to be and he felt the loss as keenly as she did.

"That's all right … I'm not alone anymore. I have Finn now … BB-8 … Goss Toowers …"

Poe lifted an eyebrow. "And?"

"And what?" she asked him softly.

"You've been in my head … you know how I feel about you …"

She gave a small, secret smile. "Yes."

"And are you ok with that?"

"More than ok," she countered and leaned further in towards him.

"Lucky for me there's no boyfriend waiting for you back on Jakku," he joked.

Rey snorted even as her lips brushed across Poe's. "Not likely … survival was the priority, not romance ... not sex … I got good at beating people off with my stick, though…"

"You're not going to beat me off with your stick, I hope," he remarked and she shook her head, eyes widening when he drew her towards him, guiding her so that she straddled him where he sat on the ground, hands resting lightly on his shoulders.

"And Finn?" he questioned her. "I know how you feel about him … and I'm ok with that … but how will he be when he wakes up and finds out about us?"

"If I'm ok with it and you're ok with it – he will be, too," Rey told him confidently, placing the palm of her hand against his cheek. He turned his head and pressed a kiss into her hand. He made a low sound in his throat when she leaned towards him and her mouth sought out his.

"BB-8?" he muttered thickly.

The droid gave an affirmative chirrup.

"Please leave us alone, we'd like some privacy."

The small droid gave a very offended beep but left the room amidst laughter from the two humans.


End file.
